Ćudić to Escobar: Is a new Berlin Wall being built on the entity border within Bosnia and Herzegovina?

(Patria) - At the meeting with the US President's Special Representative for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, in the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sabina Ćudić, president of the Naša stranka (Our Party) Club, also addressed him. She criticized the favoring of amendments to the Election Law proposed by national parties, primarily the HDZ:

“The proposal for electoral reforms favored by the international community and, unfortunately, the US, would create artificial, ethnically pure voting districts. Such a type of racial gerrymandering of electoral units in the US today, under the administration of Mr. Biden, would be seen, as is normal, as oppressive. It would, therefore, be hypocritical to export such a practice to Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

She noted that the only proposal for constitutional changes, which also concern the election law, currently in parliamentary procedure, was actually proposed by Naša stranka: “The proposal of Naša stranka, which is on the table and has already entered parliamentary procedure, ensures the protection of our diversity by ensuring a balance of collective and individual rights.”

Ćudić warned Escobar about the growing foreign influence in Bosnia and Herzegovina and asked him: “I cannot help but ask, is a new Berlin Wall being attempted to be built on the entity border within Bosnia and Herzegovina?”

She also called on him not to assist, whether through action or inaction, those forces that have led to the current state of affairs in the country:

“With due respect to the people you have negotiated and are still negotiating with in Bosnia and Herzegovina for a quarter of a century - they cannot and will not bring about change. This is partly because they would not know how, even if they wanted to, but mostly because their personal interests, their dependence on power and autocratic control, are in direct opposition to the interests of the state. For them, this is not an ideological, constitutional, or even political issue.

If it were - then the territories they exclusively rule in different parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina would be successful. That is not the case. Our country, with enormous potential, is not progressing in any category except brain drain, and it will not progress under these deeply corrupt individuals and parties. Your policy of appeasing them will not deliver anything to the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it will deliver everything to them. History looks favorably upon the finest hours of American foreign policy and vision, while its image is still recovering from operations that favored oppressive regimes like those in South America half a century ago.

The policy of appeasement did not prevent World War II because it could not quench the beastly hunger, nor will it prevent conflicts in the Western Balkans. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, you can have credible partners, progressive forces, which got a chance in the 2018 elections and will get an even bigger one in 2022. I invite you to consider our proposals for constitutional reforms that do not cement the past but choose the future.”